Good morning grovers!

Guess who I saw last night, in a particularly dirty bar in Essex?

ROMFORD RAY!

IN ROMFORD!

He was quibbling over paying the “No spray, no lay” man. I said, “Come on Ray, its only a pound?”, then drunkenly told him that the Flamster was the new him. I think he was pleased with the compliment.

Anyway, enough name dropping for now.

In news this morning, Arsene Wenger has called for focus ahead of today game with the Black Cats. You get the impression he is trying to keep there feet on the ground, to avoid complacency. Cesc also echoes his sentiments.

Thierry is in a loving mood as usual, he talks about his respect for Roy Keane and his love of world and all its creatures.

King Kolo talks about his hunger for trophies. Craig Gordon indicates that Arsenal may have been interested in him this summer and Stan the man has been offered a place on the board. There is also a piece here about Gilberto issuing a play me plea to Arsene.

Thats all I could muster up this morning, come on the Ars!

Good morning fellow Arsenal worshippers!

I’ll kick the morning off with the revelation that the President of Le List; William Gallas, is out indefinitely. Well, he is if you read this article, but if you read this article the previous article seems some what contradictory?

Anyway, going by quotes, it seems Wenger thinks Willy G is 2 weeks away from featuring. If you want to go by Sultana’s calculations, they seem to think the end of October is more realistic? Its all very confusing, I’m sure you’ll agree!

Having him out is a real blow for the team, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Or improve it? Or add a little more experience to it?

Ok, dumb proverb…

I tell you what though, his program notes better be amazing this weekend and I’m talking Dan Brown good…

Raymond Domenech blatantly read my blog the other day and got a little jealous of all the lime light I was giving the England set up about playing Michael Owen straight after an injury. So, to justify my hatred for him he has decided to call up the injured Gallas for this months Euro clashes. Just to rub salt in the wound, it appears the Spec Savers poster boy called the Czech manager as well.

In other news, Gilberto has been moaning about how hard the benches are in the new stadium. He is probably used to those tasty Recaro racing seats they have on the continent.

“I am on the bench not because of my quality or something like that but because I came back late. It is so hard.

He also talks about his respect for the manager and the other players; you can’t fault the Brazilians attitude can you?

Arsenal.com have managed to draw up an article identifying Sundays key battles, don’t look if you are of a nervous disposition.

Craig Gordon talks here about how he is looking forward to the game and how Sunderland can win. Many will be watching his performance with great interest. I think a lot of Gooners™ believed Craig Gordon was the keeper that got away. Only time will tell! There is also a piece about how Roy is Keane on pitting his wits against Wenger this Sunday.

There’s a little interview with young Mexican Carlos Vela here and Theo Walcott gives us an in depth break down on why our form has been so good this year.

Stan the man appears to have aligned himself with the Arsenal board, and it seems he may have opted to join in with the lock down agreement. This will certainly add some stability to the club at board room level. The prospect of Stan being the long term owner of Arsenal doesn’t seem half as bad as it did a few months back, no thanks to PR calamity Alisher “Jabba” Usmanov.

Finally, the Opta player of the Month went the Ade and the runner up award went to Cesc. I’m not overly surprised, but I am pleased!

And that’s it! Tune in tomorrow for a full match preview! Enjoy your Friday Grovers!

Its a quiet day on the old news feeds today!

Ashley Cole’s lover has been spouting off in the press; no silly, not him! His lady tramp lover, Cheryl Tweedy! She claims he was paranoid that all the other boys were talking about him in a nasty foreign language,

He started getting paranoid because he had no idea if they were talking about him, or what was going on.

Poor, precious Ashley! Chezzer also claimed she vetoed his dream career move to Real Madrid.

Ashley; Arsenal fans lost all respect for you a long time ago, this story hasn’t improved that situation. Who lets their wife decide that they can’t play for Madrid? More to the point, who lets their wife tell the whole world in a magazine? I imagine plenty of the Chelsea boys will be talking amongst themselves in foreign dialect this morning… I have the translation

That Ashley Cole is a hen pecked little girl

My advice to Ashley? Stop using the same PR firm as Usmanov.

Onto things of a more takeoverish nature. The Arsenal trust have fired back at Usmanov after he Jabbared (Sic) off in the Moscow press. The supporters trust is against Usmanov’s current dividend plans,

“We call upon Red & White to clarify their position. So far Usmanov has paid a lot of money to purchase 23 per cent of Arsenal but he has not put anything into the club itself. It would be appalling if he were to now seek to extract monies.”

Rightly so! Showing your greedy hand this early has surely got to be political suicide if he harboured any hopes of gaining supporters hearts.

Stan the man must be enjoying the PR free fall from the Usmanov camp. He was in town yesterday and it is being reported that he was given a stadium and site tour by Managing Director Keith Edelman. Stan is in a win win situation at the moment. I would think the board; if they were to sell, would prefer to sell to Stan. However if Stan wanted to make a quick buck and sell up, he would pick up a substantially higher fee for his shares than he paid a few months ago!

I can’t see Stan needing the Cash really? Arseblog seems to think he won’t sell and anyway, that Walmart firm seems to be doing ok at the moment?

Robin has been talking to the press and dishing out “I told you so’s” like they were going out of fashion. He is in a bullish mood and who can blame him after the start to the season we have had! There is a lot more to come from Robin this season, I can’t wait for him to hit his purple patch.

There is also a little bit on Sunderland courtesy of Arsenal.com.
Till tomorrow Grovers.